Bayer Soars in New Ranking of Most Reputable Companies in the United States

WHIPPANY, N.J., April 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayer, a Life Sciences company dedicated to health care and agriculture, significantly climbed up the list of America's most reputable companies in the 2016 U.S. RepTrak® 100 announced recently by Reputation Institute. According to the new list, which measures the public's perception of companies across a broad range of categories, Bayer ranked No. 38 among the Top 100 Most Reputable Companies in 2016. This marks a significant increase from Bayer's No. 68 ranking in 2015. The RepTrak® rankings measure the U.S. public's perception of companies based on seven dimensions: products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance. In the latest rankings, Bayer achieved its highest scores in innovation, governance and citizenship.

"We are extremely proud to improve by such a significant margin since last year, which was our first year on the RepTrak® 100 list," said Philip Blake, President of Bayer Corporation. "Our rise in the rankings in just one year is a testament to our pursuit of excellence in serving our customers and our various communities throughout the United States."

The report is compiled annually by Reputation Institute, the world's foremost research and advisory firm focused solely on corporate reputations. The RepTrak® model is considered the gold standard for reputation measurement, providing a one-of-a-kind measurement of how the public views the world's best-known companies. According to Reputation Institute, the U.S. RepTrak® 100 ranks the most reputable global companies based on more than 83,000 ratings collected in the first quarter of 2016 from members of the U.S. general public.

"In a rapidly changing global economy, it's more important than ever for companies to gain the trust of the general public, as the means to an end of earning a strong reputation," said Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, Vice President and Managing Director of U.S. and Canada at Reputation Institute. "The emotional connection that consumers have with a company drives supportive behaviors – ranging from purchasing the company's products to wanting to work for it. The results of the U.S. RepTrak® 100 tell us which companies are of highest repute, and give us unique insights into what drives trust and support in the U.S market."

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2015, the Group employed around 117,000 people and had sales of EUR 46.3 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.6 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.3 billion. These figures include those for the high-tech polymers business, which was floated on the stock market as an independent company named Covestro on October 6, 2015. For more information, go to www.bayer.us.

Reputation Institute (RI) is the world's leading research-based consulting and advisory firm for reputation. RI enables many of the world's leading companies to make more confident business decisions that build and protect reputation capital, analyze risk and sustainability topics, and drive competitive advantage. RI's most prominent management tool is the RepTrak® model for analyzing the reputations of companies and institutions – best known via the Global RepTrak® 100, the world's largest and most comprehensive study of corporate reputations, as well as Country RepTrak® and City RepTrak® studies that look at reputation across organizations within a given geography.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports, which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.